This is for any person who may find themselves intimidated by the occasional, or sometimes frequent, flaming that occurs in your favorite newsgroup(s).

If there is such a thing as Objective Truth--and I believe, though with a general lack of evidence, that it does exist--it is only tangentially relevant to the human condition.

Hello, my name is Diane, and I haven't been perfect for two years.

Talking to a therapist about your feelings is necessary, but yes, it is also hard to learn. But if you don't talk about your feelings, there is no way that a therapist can help you learn to deal with them.

At the very beginning of this century a voice was born.

For me, forgiveness was something that happened fairly late in recovery. Here are a few thoughts...

I'm sorry to hear that you are hurting so much.... and yes, it's OK to say whatever you want to say or need to say about that, whenever you want, and as much as you want.

You'll be sitting there, talking to the survivor, when all of a sudden you realize she isn't even listening. Instead, she'll be staring at some faraway object as though deep in thought.

I know this isn't much of a surprise, even less a universal truth. I don't yet know if this post will contain any such revelations; I know where I want to get to, but I don't yet know how to get there.

One of the ways that I view my anger is as a hissing ball of writhing black snakes, suspended over a lake in a deep valley. The reason the snakes are suspended is that I do not want to touch them, or them to touch me.

I will start with a set of three photographs. I don't have many photographs of myself, and there are multiple reasons for that.

OK, I've been putting this off. All day. Several weeks. A good chunk of my life. It's important that you know that my mother was an emotional abuser.

This is a serious question. The fear is always that if one is honest, one may be denied treatment, that it is more important to "say the right things" than to say the truth.